Cecile Richards with Laura McQuade at Planned Parenthood of New York City’s Spring into Action Gala.

By Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com.

Pink was everywhere at Planned Parenthood of New York City’s Spring into Action Gala on Tuesday night—on the towering bouquets of cherry blossoms on the bars, on the dress worn by outgoing president Cecile Richards, and on the (unofficial) buttons handed out to friends by artist and co-host Marilyn Minter that read “Don’t Fuck With Us, Don’t Fuck Without Us.”

The color, also part of Planned Parenthood’s logo, has become synonymous with the women who have taken to the streets in protest in the last year and a half. And at the gala, it set the tone for an evening centered on change—Richards was giving her official farewell after more than a decade at the helm—but also a celebration of an organization that stands stronger than ever after 100 years.

Speaking earlier that afternoon, Richards credited public acts of resistance like the 2017 Women’s March and protests that followed for Planned Parenthood’s survival. After the election “it could’ve gone a lot of different ways,” she said, “but it really was because of people around the country that mobilized, and it’s why our doors are still open. I do think that, increasingly, people understand that it’s not an abstract right, but that the ability to get affordable reproductive care is absolutely connected to your ability to participate in the economy, to finish school, to get into a graduate program, or to pursue a career.

“I really am very optimistic about the future.”

Richards recently published her memoir, Make Trouble, and, in an interview with CBS earlier Tuesday morning, did not completely squash rumors that she’d run for political office—following in the footsteps of her mom, Ann Richards, governor of Texas in the 90s. (This should be good news for Minter, who called Richards her “idol and hero,” and said she hopes she runs for office.)

Also in attendance at the gala was new C.E.O. of Planned Parenthood of New York City (P.P.N.Y.C.), Laura McQuade, who succeeded Joan Malin in September 2017 and gave remarks at the close of dinner in her first major public appearance since assuming the role.

Earlier that week, McQuade said in a phone call that becoming Planned Parenthood’s president was “a dream job at a dream moment in time,” and detailed her big plans for New York state, including, as she shared for the first time with V.F., founding a New York City–based PAC. “We want to be able to be fully part of mobilizing Planned Parenthood and our beliefs to put the right candidates in office,” she said. “New York state needs to be the state it thinks it is, and it needs to be the state that it tells the nation it is.”

Left, Laverne Cox, the recipient of the Champion of Change Award poses with outgoing Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards; Right, Chloë Sevigny and Molly Ringwald in attendance at Planned Parenthood of New York City’s Spring into Action Gala.

By Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com.

Back at the gala, the guests—among them co-hosts Chloë Sevigny and Jessica Williams, Molly Ringwald, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Uma Thurman—sat for dinner as Laverne Cox took the stage to receive the Champion of Change Award. “In so many conversations in this culture, we leave out transgender people, so to be included tonight feels like a special moment not only for me, but for the entire transgender community,” Cox said in a rousing acceptance speech that nodded to poet and activist Audre Lorde. Cox also took the opportunity to tell those within the trans community that Planned Parenthood—which now offers hormone therapy across 17 states—welcomes them with open arms. “I wanted to shout out to the world . . . that you can go there for healthcare and have competent healthcare professionals. I meet transgender people all over the country who don’t have access to lifesaving healthcare. Just to be clear, healthcare for transgender people is lifesaving—and I just want everyone to know that Planned Parenthood is a place to go.”

After dinner, an after-hours party D.J.’ed by Questlove got started, complete with rainbow candy–filled jars, “Smash the Patriarchy” cocktails, limited-edition tote bags designed by Barack Obama’s official-portrait painter, Kehinde Wiley, and watercolor portraits of partygoers by local artist Caryn Cast. As the dance floor filled to the sounds of Drake’s “Nice for What,” the unabashedly joyful mood was the polar opposite of so many wilted 2016 election-night parties in New York City, where fear and anxiety reigned by midnight.

And why not? As McQuade sees it, there’s a lot to be excited about as the midterms draw near. “We’re in a really politically and policy-possible moment in New York state. And even, frankly, federally. We have a real opportunity to make our voices heard in November—whether that’s to take back the New York State Senate to a pro-reproductive health and rights majority or to take back the United States Congress,” she said. “It is our responsibility to continue to motivate and mobilize people to take the action necessary for change, and I think we’ve got all those pieces lined up for us right now.”

Get Vanity Fair’s Cocktail Hour

Our essential brief on culture, the news, and more. And it's on the house.